If you love travel and you love Australian wine, then you have come to the right place. Because Fox Creek’s excellent Shiraz wines take you to the south of Australia in a single sip.

A relatively recent winery (yet an old-timer for the Australian wine industry), Fox Creek was established in 1984 by Jim and Helen Watts in McClaren Vale. Hobbyists at first, Jim and Helen spent years developing the black clay soils of their 32-hectare estate, selling the fruit to neighbouring winemakers. However, a daughter graduating from oenology changed all that; the estate’s first vintage, a (now practically unfindable) 1994 Shiraz was an instant success and shot Fox Creek to the top of the fine wine pile. The rest is winemaking history.

The name Fox Creek is synonymous with Shiraz. The Reserve comes from various high-quality vineyard blocks planted in grey loam and red gravel terroir. The grapes are fermented on their skins for up to 10 days, before they are fermented in stainless steel vats in their state of the art winery. While the Reserve is clearly their flagship wine (and highest scoring - Robert Parker gave the 1998 96/100), Fox Creek has also had great success with their blends, which include Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Verdelho. Fox Creek sources grapes grown only in the McLaren Vale, most of which come from its own estate vineyards.

It is interesting to note that their website is in Chinese as well as English, implying that sales to the east are good, and look set to stay that way. China is the largest importer of Australian wines (followed by Sweden, China, Thailand, Russia and Singapore), a fact no doubt aided by the Australian Government’s “Export and Regional Wine Support Package”, a one-off allocation of $50million AUD (€30million), to encourage growth of the industry through both exports and regional tourism.